Meet the Rawnsleys

Hi, we’re Phil and Lozzie Rawnsley. Originally from the UK, we now live on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Together with our three daughters, we are Team Rawnsley. Outpost Family didn’t begin as a ministry idea. It began around our own dining table, in the ordinary rhythms of raising children and trying to understand what this thing called family was really meant to be.

In 2019, Steven Manuel—an American pastor who had mentored Phil during his teenage years in the mid-1990s—launched the Abraham’s Wallet podcast to help families live in a biblical way, with a particular focus on equipping husbands, fathers and grandfathers. Listening to the podcast opened a window into Steven’s life and teaching again and became the catalyst for us thinking about family in an entirely new way. Although Phil had served in leadership roles across churches, parachurch organisations and Christian education for more than 20 years, much of what we were hearing was completely new to us. As we discovered God’s vision and purpose for family—and began imagining the rhythms, traditions and culture we could intentionally cultivate in our own home—we were captivated. To borrow an image from The Matrix, it was a “red-pill” moment: once we saw it, we couldn’t unsee it.

Over time, a simple vision began to take shape for our family: “The Rawnsleys follow God’s vision for family and give it away through teaching and hospitality”. That conviction has changed the questions we ask, the way we understand our identities, the traditions we practise and the future we are building together.

We’ve come to believe that family is designed to be far more than just a collection of individuals sharing a home for a season before the children leave the nest and everyone pursues their separate lives. It is designed to be a multigenerational team under God, sent on mission together to build a lasting legacy.

We don’t claim to have it all figured out. We are still learning, growing and making mistakes. But through both the wins and the losses, we have seen this vision bear fruit in our own home—and we believe it is too important to keep to ourselves. It is biblical, it is practical and it works.